


The Antique Shop

by Pandorah



Series: Kyne Eriliss [3]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Gen, beware of wobbly book stacks, bookworm - Freeform, fun in an antique shop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-25 01:30:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14367999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pandorah/pseuds/Pandorah
Summary: Kyne goes to his favorite antique shop to look for some new books and ends up having a near death experience (kinda).





	The Antique Shop

A small worn down building sat off the main road in a narrow alleyway. No sign hung above the door to mark it as a shop, but an older man swept the sidewalk out front every day and waited for customers. He greeted everyone cheerfully with a smile, even if they never stepped foot in his shop of oddities. Whenever children ran up to him, he always stopped what he was doing to listen to theirs stories or ‘appraise’ their latest finds. He always took the items and paid the children with coin if they were worth it, or with small candies if they were not.

The old shop owner had a few regular customers, most of them were searching for something they hoped to be worth more, but others had more specific things in mind. He greeted Kyne with a warm smile when the apprentice showed up.He always looked forward to the apprentices visit every week.

“Good morning, Kyne!” The main greeted with a grin. “I got a couple boxes of new arrivals this week. They are in the back, though still unsorted. Go ahead and go through them if you wish.”

“Thank you, Baj, I will do just that.” Kyne returned the smile as he entered the shop.

The shop was four rooms in size and very cluttered. Dust covered most of the items on the shelves that ranged from trinkets to old pottery. One section in the back was dedicated to books, and that is what had drawn Kyne here. He’d been lucky a few times in finding rare books here, but mostly nothing of note.

While heading towards the back room, he spotted a few small things on the shelf that caught his eye, and put them into his pocket to pay for later. Kyne had to turn sideways to squeeze through a stack of boxes to get where the shelves were that held the books. The new boxes were on the floor in the only available space left for them.

Despite the amount of dust on the floor, Kyne plopped down, crossed his legs, and pulled the closest box over. He began sorting them by subject and then year once there were enough. They were mostly fiction and did not hold too much interest for him, but he did put one to the side that he thought Asra might enjoy.

He spent time flipping through each of the dusty books and tomes for over an hour before he finally found something that caught his interest. “Spirits, Gods, and the Stars.” Kyne read aloud and held the large tome open on his lap. The book discussed different myths and stories about the spirits and gods in regards to the stars and how they were all connect. There was even a chapter dedicated to astrology, which is what Kyne specialized it. He then became absorbed into the book as he began to read and lost all sense of time.

The light was slowly fading outside the shop windows signaling the coming of dusk. Candles slowly flickered to life on their own around the shop and some voices spoke softly in the distance.

“Kyne? I did not realize you were still here!” Baj said loudly in the otherwise silent shop.

Kyne bolted upright at the sudden noise, being immediately pulled from his thoughts. His back slammed against a stack of books behind him, sending them tumbling to the ground and on top of him. When he tried to move to stop them from falling, he bumped into another large stack and sent that one over as well. The sudden avalanche of books stirred up a large cloud of dust which had both apprentice and shop owner closing their eyes and going into coughing fits.

“Are you okay?” Baj asked as he quickly started pushing books off to the side to help Kyne unbury himself. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

Kyne shook his head, his green hair sticking up in all directions and covered in a layer of dust. A dark smudge ran across one cheek and some remnants of dried flowers clung to his clothing.

“I’m fine.” he replied after he got enough breath back to speak. “I’m sorry for the mess. It looks like I lost track of time for a bit.”

“You’ve been in here for hours!” Baj chuckled and gave the younger male a hand to help pull him up to his feet. “Though that is pretty normal for you, eh?”

Kyne felt his cheeks heat a bit from embarrassment. Asra always joked that he’d probably die buried in a book. He didn’t think the magician had meant it to be literally. He thought about trying to hide this from Asra, but the man was cunning like a fox and would probably find out somehow.

“I found a few books that I would like to buy.” Kyne looked at the now mountain of books scattered all over the floor of the room. “I will clean this up since it is my fault. You will still be open for a little while longer, right?”

“I’ll tell you what, you leave this mess for now and you can come back tomorrow morning. I will help you get this cleaned up, and if you help with the rest of the shop, you won’t owe me a thing for the books you want. It’s my fault for not putting things away properly in the first place.”

Kyne wanted to object but he knew Baj could be very stubborn. “Alright, but I’m going to pay you for these.” He took the small items out of his pocket that he’d spotted on the way in; a little wooden snake about the size of his palm curled up with ruby eyes, and an odd rock that reminded him on the night sky. He pulled some coin from his pouch and put them into Baj’s shirt pocket. “I will see you tomorrow.”

“Have a nice night!” Baj said as he followed Kyne to the door. He chuckled as he watched the apprentice walk away. His back was covered in dusty book marks. He knew that Asra would get a laugh out of that.


End file.
